Customers…
THEM “I want it all the way up to the top of the drive”
ME “The crane doesn’t stretch that far”
THEM “Go back and get a bigger crane then!”
For those who aren’t familiar with hiab work: most of it doesnot involve lifting containers or anything remotely that large, it’s mostly building materials and recycling containers.
Regardless, both stabilizer legs need to be out as far as is possible. If you’re lifting a sub-maximal load to one side (eg a pallet of bricks), then the other side can have it’s leg less far out (for the benefit of traffic etc) BUT that still affects the centre of gravity for the vehicle.
No need for the complexities shown earlier in the thread, when you’re sitting in the operator chair of those hiabs which don’t have a remote, you can feel the effects.
No one who isn’t fully experienced should be attempting the job this guy was trying to do, and it’s obvious to anyone who is experienced in hiab work that this character is not experienced
One of my favourite jobs I’ve had was at a local builders merchant doing just that kind of thing: no nights out in lay-bys, family-friendly working hours, no last minute “nipping down the road” (ie 100+miles) for a collection, 8am start and if you weren’t all wrapped up and on your way home by 4:30pm at latest, people were upset.
Yes there are challenges, mainly of the human variety, but I would most likely have stayed in that job a lot longer if I hadn’t gotten an offer of other work that was just far too good to pass up.
I wouldn’t say these jobs are “unwanted”; apart from by those “new-pass-I’m-not-doing-anything-but-Class1-cos-I-reckon-I’m-the-mutt’s-nuts-already-even-with-zero-experience” I’d suggest the employers struggle to find people that can do it properly. As the news article example clearly shows.
Only unwanted by the likes of Carryfast, who had an aversion to leaving the driving seat, explaining his failure in the industry.
I enjoyed crane work, a different challenge every day.
I never liked remote controls. Old school levers always talk to the operator, letting himknow what’s happening.
Yes, I liked the problem-solving aspect of the work too.
Conversely, I not only loved the remote but it was an essential safety tool.
A lot of my earlier work was moving recycling containers, often in busy supermarket car parks: Using a remote I could protect numpty shoppers from their own stupidity; I would stand beside the container I was lifting to stop shoppers putting their hands into a container that was in the process of moving up in the air
Country cottages to atomic power stations and all in between.
Mostly I had a small crane mounted on a F86 unit, but also used trailer mounted brick clamps time to time.
Never used a remote, but it would have been a boon on a lot of jobs.
Typical Hiab training these days is a bit longer, about a day in the classroom with a very basic theory test, and maybe half a day using the crane. Unless you do the ALLMI training, which is a minimum full two days (whether novice or experienced) and costs a whopping £786 (£655 + VAT)
That first picture looks like one of the bouncy balls that keeps you trapped on the island with Patrick McGoohan
8ft diameter x about 12 ft and one ton.
The large ones were double the length and at just under 2ton quite enough for that crane. VetroResin Peterlee originally.
And one day I will bore you with “how to deliver into an American A-Bomb Compound”.
A large reason for the ‘hassle’ of doing builders wagon work is because it usually involves using a Hiab crane.In addition to generally being local urban driving and yard labouring when not driving.
Ironically there were often times when I had to handball loads with a Hiab wagon because of unsafe packaging for lifting or too much weight for the reach required etc.If not brought it back.
But can remember telling the agency I’m a driver not a crane operator and not interested in Hiab work as part of my eventual reasons for walking away.
At what point do we say it’s a job for a professional dedicated mobile crane operation.While designing that length of extension on a truck mounted crane is just leading the unfortunate ‘driver’ into disaster.
If it had been me that load would have been going nowhere.
Only a slight drift, but that did remind me of when I was broke and unemployed in Sydney at the start of the 6 day war. I volunteered at the local Jewish centre to go to Israel and they asked me my expertise. I proudly announced ‘road train driver’ convinced that I would be on the next plane. They were very excited and advanced me to the next table where reality struck. ‘We would love to have you come to help us but you will have to pay your own fare, my colleague thought you said ‘crane driver’ and that is what we really need. All the blokes on the cranes at Tel Aviv docks have been called up for the army and we desperately need those tanks from the US unloading from the ships’.
Nah Carryfast, my dream job would be working backstage with the likes of Miranda Kerr or Elle McPherson.
I’ve owned both, a road train and crane truck, but not a 'train with a SLC, but at times it would have been handy.
Some of the work involved skip loads of filled bottles of various alcoholic “beverages” (that brightly coloured stuff, like Cactus Jack’s schnapps) which for some reason had been rejected for retail. Naturally the filled bottles smashed when they were tipped. On those days, yes, the normally foul smelling yard smelled quite pleasant and the lads in the yard seemed a bit more cheerul
